BHOYS A BRIDGE TO BIGGER STAGE

Deila accepts reality of stars going south but foresees larger sales than van Dijk in future

MAYBE he’s j ust playing i t cute, taking account of a naturally sceptical audience. After all, if Ronny Deila was to start whining and moaning about being unable to r esist £10million-plus bids for his best players, it’s not like he’d get much sympathy.

Those charged with balancing Celtic’s books would simply shake their heads and point to the accounts. And you could probably guess the reaction of rival managers trying to compete with the reigning, probable and — Dave King’s ambitions notwithstanding — potentially perpetual champions on a budget that wouldn’t cover their training-ground maintenance bill.

While he wouldn’t want to wander i nto Pittodrie this lunchtime muttering ‘ Oh woe is me’ within earshot of Derek McInnes, though, it genuinely seems as if Deila has bought into the realism that has turned Scotland’s most dominant club into a finishing school for English Premier League prospects.

The Norwegian even says that, because of Celtic’s burgeoning reputation for shifting players on to the world’s richest domestic competition, they might soon start fetching bigger and bigger prices for their prize assets.

‘I’m used to it,’ said the former Stromsgodset boss, who has just seen Virgil van Dijk shipped off to Southampton for £13million, the Dutchman following the same path trodden by Fraser Forster — for just the £10m — last summer.

‘You have to understand what kind of club you’re coming to — and what kind of club I was at before, as well. Now it’s about the level and it’s about money, those two things.

‘Scotland is not the highest level. And we don’t have the highest salaries, either. So these players want to prove themselves football-wise and earn more money.

‘That’s something you can’t stop. They’re going to a higher level, playing Premier League every week. So they are not bigger clubs than Celtic. Who is bigger than Celtic? You have t o go t o Arsenal, (Manchester) United maybe.

‘But they are playing in the Premier League. You have a bigger chance to show yourself and move on to the next stage, the national team as well.

‘So it’s about two things. Money, of course. And playing in a bigger league that is more competitive.’

Van Dijk stayed for two seasons, a deal that suited both parties well enough, even if Celtic would have liked him to have stayed around for another campaign. But his departure, along with the loss of Manchester City loan defender Jason Denayer, underlines the impermanence — the inability to build a team over the long term — of Celtic’s new reality.

‘We just have to keep them as long as we can,’ said Deila. ‘It’s very good that we kept Virgil for another year before he reached the stage where it was the right time to go. And also we got a lot of money back for him.

‘And I don’t think the money we got for Virgil will be the biggest ever. I think we can get higher. In the future, we can do that, as long as we progress all the players we have.

‘ Now, we’re starting to get a reputation — if you go to Celtic, you can get better and better, then get sold to a bigger club. Tyler Blackett ( j ust s i gned f r om Manchester United on loan) would never have come to Celtic if he hadn’t heard about what happened with Jason Denayer. So this reputation is very good for us.

‘Of course, we want to own most of the players. But Blackett is at t hat l evel we can’t buy. So sometimes it’s good to get in good signings on loan, as well.’

Expressing satisfaction with the work done during the transfer window, despite the flirtation with a loan deal for Sunderland and Scotland striker Steven Fletcher coming to nothing, Deila said: ‘I think we’ve done a lot.

‘I think we have a lot of prospects. Now we need to build a team through the season and they will improve the squad even more. That can make us strong throughout the season and into the next one. I am happy with what we did.

‘ We wanted to sign maybe a forward player. We tried everything. We were very close but also so far away. It was so tough to get the players we wanted in. But we don’t buy players just to buy them. If we can’t get them now, then we have to wait until January.’

As for Celtic’s policy of sweeping up the best emerging Scottish talent, from Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven to now Scott Allan and Ryan Christie, Deila is enthusiastic a bout this home-grown emphasis — although just a little sceptical about how many more hidden gems are out there in the SPFL.

‘In Scotland, we have very good control over what is happening,’ he said. ‘Ryan Christie, I am very happy to get him signed for Celtic. I think he has a big future.

‘ But if you see overall, there aren’t many big young talents in Scotland. So we have to step up there and give them opportunities, try to make them develop and get out there and be as good as Virgil — that kind of level.

‘The first thing is important, to give them a chance and try to develop them so they can get out there to the best clubs. Hopefully, we can develop our big Scottish stars.’

This reputation we have of progressing players is good for us